Sunday’s Forum
Steven L. Taylor
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Sunday, September 8, 2024
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29 comments
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About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
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Dick Cheney endorses Kamala Harris. And in the immortal words of Nicolle Wallace of NBC, “hell has frozen over”.
Now where the hell is Bush? Surely he can come out and say something on his own?
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/06/politics/dick-cheney-kamala-harris-president/index.html
@Not the IT Dept.:
Nope.
@Mikey:
““President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago,” the office added.”
And when did he retire from being an American citizen with the good of the country at heart? Gutless wimp.
@Not the IT Dept.: Disappearing from public life and keeping his mouth shut is the only constructive thing the little spits done. I’m OK if it stays that way.
@Not the IT Dept.: Answer: The day he was born.
Sérgio Mendes, who brought bossa nova to an international audience in the 1960s with his band Brasil ’66, has died aged 83 as a result of health challenges related to long-term Covid.
RIP.
@Not the IT Dept.: What makes you think that the President who publicly endorsed and defended torture for the first time in US history would come out against Trump?
Maybe more to do with the political aspirations of George P. bush, Jeb’s kid.
@charontwo: This, and the fact that his two working daughters, who both have young children, likely are on the receiving end of threats.
According to the NYT, Trump and Harris are neck-and-neck.
IIRC, today is the 50th anniversary of Pres. Ford pardoning former President Nixon. The mind boggles. Well, mine does
@Flat Earth Luddite:
It’s also the 58th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek OS.
@CSK:
Somehow, I’m hearing a mashup of Shatner as Capt Kirk, TJ Hooker, & Denny Crane, impersonating RM Nixon. Wowsers!
@Flat Earth Luddite: I’m Denny Crane, but I am not a crook. (???)
@Flat Earth Luddite:
Reminded me of Shatner does Sarah Palin beat poetry. A classic.
@dazedandconfused:
Oooookay. Think I’ll go back to Detox Mansion…
https://youtu.be/8tkkdBsVnlY?feature=shared
Annals of the Uselessness of AI Generated Content: Part 52. So I have some cheapish kayak paddles that are old and the drip rings are loose. I’d like to replace them, but the paddles appear to be a single piece, and so there is no way to separate it into two halves and slide the rings down the shaft. I googled “How can I replace the drip ring on my kayak paddle” and in the results was one site that had “the drip ring is in two parts” and I thought, “bingo”. Go to the site and it is, maybe, a legit site. Then I read the text. Obviously generated by AI. Obviously useless. Basically it says. “Most drip rings are in two parts”, and then “slide the drip ring over the shaft”, so basically, instructions for all the one piece drip ring replacements that assume the paddle can be separated into tow shafts. @Kathy, I know you’ve found AI stuff useful but I can’t think of a single time that it actually helped me do anything real. I mean, yes, it sounds convincing, but if what it says actually has to meet the real world it all seems crap to me.
I found this fascinating. Man-on-the-streets of Moscow, asking Russians if they’re bothered that Ukraine has invaded their country.
TLDW: Nope.
The utter passivity is amazing. Say what you will about Americans and our often grating patriotism, but if Mexico crossed the Rio Grande, or Canada the Sault Saint Marie, I think you’d getter a dramatically different answer. These Russians shrug, but in this country? We’d have to stop all the armed wannabe warriors who’d hop in their pick-ups. Yet we hear constantly that the Russians are obsessed with border security and a fear of invasion.
@Michael Reynolds:
All the news they get probably tells them that Russia is clobbering Ukraine.
In other news, Trump has announced that the new membership fee for Mar-a-Lago will be one million dollars, starting in October to mark the 30th anniversary of the club.
@Michael Reynolds: Russians believe what state controlled media tell them, like Republicans and FOX. That’s the bad news. The good news is it means Putin could make any deal he wants to, or is forced to, without fear of popular opposition.
@CSK: Raising Merde-a-Lago membership fees in October makes sense. If we get lucky there’ll be considerable less demand in mid-November.
There are right now are about 50 buzzards just floating around about 400 feet up above me right now. They never flap, just endlessly soar and catch up drafts. The odd wind combinations of a downtown layout suit their fancy. They are literally playing and goofing around, I swear. They all live atop a communications tower two blocks away. (Buzzards actually, occasionally do flap – especially to land. Rare to see. It’s cool to see.)
There is something just really soul satisfying about watching buzzards soar, float, and gyre seemingly endlessly.
What are they eating?
In May I was mesmerized and I still am. Buzzards are fascinating, and if I ever get bored or dismissive of their shocking abilities, I will have lost a bit of who I am.
I hope to never not get mesmerized and fascinated by their graceful shenanigans.
@Flat Earth Luddite:
But wait, there’s more! Trump tweets read in the voice of Gollum.
@dazedandconfused:
Mark Hamill did the same using the voice of The Joker in the Batman animated series.
But, really, especially in the case of El Weirdo, une should update to the current usage, and call the medium of his demented diatribes Xitts.
@MarkedMan:
I use it mostly to search. It’s good in finding specifics in general pages. But one should always fact check it. Copilot includes links to sources. When it does not, I do a general web search of its answers.
I haven’t used it to generate content, but have experimented with it. I do sometimes get it to summarize things I’ve written, to see whether it reflects what I mean to say. But, again, it pays to check the answers.
I’ve come across AI generated crap online, too. The people who publish such things, like the lawyers who included fictional cases in their briefs, are lazy and sloppy in the use of these new tools.
@de stijl:
I think this like when you’re at a poker table looking around to figure out who is the chump. If you have to ask, it’s you.
Good luck. Seek shelter.
@Michael Reynolds:
Authoritarian state mindset.
All such things are the concern of the fuhrer/tsar/caliph/sultan/khan/emperor/whatever.
Shifting that basic assumption of how the state functions, and to whom it is accountable, is very difficult.
It seems to be a cultural difference with rather deep roots.
@Gustopher:
You are operating under the assumption that buzzards feed on carrion 24/7. They don’t. They mostly glide.
I can say with absolute confidence and certainty by sight that they mostly faff about with the endless gliding for what I assume is for fun and enjoyment. They sport about the updraft created by high buildings catching / redirecting wind gusts and just circle endlessly. It requires few calories. They just glide, circle, gyre endlessly during daylight hours.
They have to eat something sometime. Imagine your whole life is air currents?
@de stijl: and they’re consistent. For YEARS. For the longest time the instructions from my roommate as to how to get to the family house included “turn left when you get to the crossroads where the buzzards circle.”